A bit of culture and jaw dropping beauty were on the menu today but first I had to get out of Plockton! Leaving this morning for my exploration of more of Wester Ross I was slowed on my drive down the lane from my cottage by a few neighborhood cows. This evening they were brought home by their owner who had obviously gone to fetch them on his bicycle. Cows roam freely in Plockton – and I am reminded that I need to keep the gate to the house shut!
I chose to drive to Gairloch and beyond – once again my senses were assailed by stunning mountains, glens and moors around every corner. Gairloch, which sits on the shore of Loch Gairloch and on the infamous North Coast 500, is a beautiful village boasting an excellent museum which occupies a 1950’s bunker built to protect the village from the atomic bomb the world was certain Russia would deploy against the western world. There is also a 9 hole golf course touted as possibly the best “wee 9 hole golf course in the Highlands”. The earliest evidence of people in this area comes from the dunes above Red Point Beach in which were discovered pieces of stone tools dating to 5000 BC. Fast forward to the 1200’s when the earldom of Ross was set up as a reward for assisting the king. After 1306, King Robert Bruce, confirmed that Gairloch belonged to the Earl of Ross. The Macdonalds, Lords of the Isles, would come to take over the Earldom of Ross.
Driving north I headed up the North Coast 500 to Poolewe and Tournaig and on to Guinard, eventually winding my way back south to Plockton. It was an 8 hour day spent driving through jaw dropping landscapes with magnificent mountains all around. Clearly, Wester Ross was one of the most beautiful areas in the Kingdom of the Lords of the Isles.
